


Sturdy, Denim, and Blue

by ruffboi



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: F/M, Stolen Century era, but they're all in there at the end, mostly it's barry and lup
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-19
Updated: 2017-09-19
Packaged: 2018-12-31 13:22:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,727
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12133404
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ruffboi/pseuds/ruffboi
Summary: When he's young, Barry learns very quickly that people don't like tieflings, so he takes steps to make sure no one knows he is one.But he hadn't counted on the Hunger, or the Starblaster, or Lup.





	Sturdy, Denim, and Blue

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ElZacharie](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ElZacharie/gifts).



> inspired by a late-night conversation in Wooden Ducks Anonymous. Thank you all for your ridiculousness and encouragement.

When he's young, Barry Hallwinter learns very quickly that people don't like tieflings.

It's not that tieflings don't exist in all levels of society, or aren't allowed to exist.  It's just… there's a lot of people who hold their bags tighter when he passes them on the street.  He's been passed over for jobs for no apparent reason, despite being better qualified than whoever was actually hired.

It wasn't that he was trying to hide who he was, he was just trying to… okay, he was trying to hide part of who he was.  But if he hid that part, he could show how smart and friendly and hard-working he was, so it was a fair trade, right?

He pays a frankly exorbitant amount of money to a wizard specializing in illusion magic to cast a permanent disguise spell on a pair of pants.  He could've gone with his glasses, but those fall off his nose too often.  A hat, but then he'd have to explain why he always wears a hat.  No, he's ALWAYS going to be wearing pants, so that's the best choice.  And, going by the most sturdy pair of pants he had, those pants were a pair of bluejeans.

He makes a passable human.  His tail is thin and flexible, and he's able to comfortably curl it up in the back of his pants, adding a bit of mass to his butt.  His horns are small and a bit stubby, hiding in his hair - unless someone was running their fingers through it, they wouldn't notice them with the disguise on.  It makes his skin pale instead of deep red, his eyes human-looking and brown instead of pure gold.  He's more than happy to run with this for the foreseeable future.

He gets a job as a TA at the IPRE - a research facility with its own attached college, of sorts.  And then he gets accepted on the Starblaster mission.  It's a dream come true, though of course he'll have to be careful not to have his jeans off where anyone can see.  On the plus side, no one will expect him to be OUT of them, probably - he's gotten a bit of a reputation among the students.  They call him "Barry Bluejeans", and honestly he kind of enjoys it.

Then they leave.

Then the Hunger comes.

He's so deeply caught up in everything - grief, research, theorizing - that it honestly doesn't occur to him to tell his fellow survivors about his true nature until they've settled into the second cycle.  And by then, well… well it's just _weird_ to bust it out now, right?  After all they've been through, after over a year of working together, to be like "oh yeah, by the way, I never thought of trusting you with this, but I'm actually not a human."  And anyway, his jeans are sturdy, and refreshed every cycle when they start again.  He might as well just keep it up and save himself the embarrassment.

And, against all odds, it _works_ .  Even with the close quarters, even with years passing, no one ever seems to be the wiser.  He gives in to the impulse to drop "Hallwinter" and just starts going by Barry Bluejeans on each new world they land on.  Things are _good_ , or as good as they can be while they're seven people on an inter-planar vessel on the run from a universe-destroying being that devours other planes in their wake.

It starts to be a problem when he realizes he's falling in love with Lup.  Even as awkward as he is, he realizes what they're doing, flirting, dancing around their attraction to each other.  But it's not time yet.  He has time to decide how to fucking bring up the fact that he's been a tiefling this whole time.

Cycle 34, he's caught some sort of flu bug, staying home and sleeping off the stuffy nose while everyone else goes searching and researching and stuff.  No one's left on the ship, he's in his pajamas, it's the middle of the night, there's no need to put on his jeans or cast disguise self if he goes to get something to eat from the fridge.  His fever's broken, he's pretty sure, and he's _starving_.

The lights are mostly off, and Barry's frankly glad for it - he's had such a bad headache the past few days.  He just opens the fridge to go through it.  Grabs a leftover sandwich, the bread a little stale, and starts to eat it as he peruses the rest of the offerings, tail twitching cat-like behind him.

He misses the sounds of someone walking towards the kitchen until he hears the scuff of bare feet on the wood of the kitchen floor, coming to a halt, and he hears Lup's voice, confused and a little tired.  "...Barry?"

He freezes, mouth full of sandwich, and slowly turns to look at her.  She's just wearing her nightshirt, and in any other situation, he'd be very distracted by that.  Instead, he's just panicking internally, because she just caught him digging in the fridge in the dark, without his disguise.  

They stand there staring at each other, frozen by the shock of the situation, for a good ten seconds.  Lup's mouth works a little, trying to say something.  Barry's mouth is suddenly so dry he can't even swallow the food in his mouth.

He reaches up, after those long seconds, and casts _disguise self_ , the familiar colors of his human disguise falling over him, never quite looking away from Lup.  Then, unable to swallow and unable to think of anything better to do, he backs away from the fridge, mouth still full of half-chewed sandwich, and backs down the hallway towards his room.

He and Lup don't stop staring wide-eyed at each other until Barry is literally out of sight, at which point he books it top speed back to his room, locking the door behind him and slumping against it.  He chews, forces himself to swallow finally, and resigns himself to… whatever mortifying fate will befall him in the morning.

He still puts his jeans on, before he goes out.

And then… nothing happens.  No one brings it up.  Lup teases him a little less, maybe, but no one seems to notice, and he's almost starting to think he'd _dreamed_ the whole thing when she bumps shoulders with him while doing the dishes and says, "Hey, can we talk in private?"

The fear and discomfort that had been slowly settling rises back up in his throat, but he nods and says, "Yeah, sure," and follows her back to her room after they're done, wiping his hands dry on his jeans.

"So," she says after he's closed the door behind him, sitting on her bed with her arms crossed over her chest.  "Tiefling, huh?"

"Uh," says Barry.  "Y… yeah."

"There a reason you haven't told anybody?"  Is she angry?  He can't tell if she's angry.

"Well, I just… like to keep it on the down-low," he says, rubbing his neck.  "And it was only going to be a few months, so I thought… and then I was so caught up in everything else, by the time I realized I should tell you guys, we were already on the second cycle, so…"  He gestures helplessly.

"So you just kept not saying anything," Lup says, and nods.  She's not teasing him or being ridiculous, his heart's in his throat, what does this even _mean_?  She usually only gets serious when she's angry.  "Makes sense, I guess."

That brings him up short.  "What?"

"I mean, it's not like any of us would judge," she says, "but it's your life."  She shrugs.  "And I get that it'd be awkward at this point."  She hops to her feet and pats his shoulder.  "No worries, homie."

"You're…" he frowns slightly.  "You're not going to tell anyone?"

She raises a single eyebrow.  "Uh, you _do_ know who you're talking to, right?"  He doesn't understand what she means, and it must show on his face because she rolls her eyes and sighs softly.  " _Fuck_ , straight boys are so dense," she mutters.  "I get wanting to keep things secret even if part of you knows you don't have to," she says firmly, meeting his eyes and holding his gaze.  "And I get how much it sucks for people to find that secret out when it's not on your terms."  

"You-- _oh_!" he says, the pieces finally clicking together, and he blushes furiously, mortified that he didn't realize quicker.  "Right."

She laughs.  "Hey, it's cool.  And it's true that nobody'll give you shit for being a tiefling."  She pauses thoughtfully.  " _Possibly_ for picking your damn _bluejeans_ as the object for your disguise spell - yes, I figured that out, _Barold_ \- but not for who you are.  I'm pretty sure all of us can understand not wanting to deal with people's shit over something you can't change."

She pats his shoulder and smiles encouragingly, then flounces out of the room, leaving Barry with a lot of thoughts, a lot of feelings, and an almost physical sense of relief.

And, as he knew she would be, Lup is true to her word.  As far as he can tell, she doesn't even breathe a word to _Taako_ , and knowing how close they are, that's saying something.  The cycles go by, and Lup remains the only person on the Starblaster who knows the secret of Barry Bluejeans.

Cycle 47 brings them to the Legato Conservatory, and he and Lup start spending time together - _really_ spending time together, just them, for hours on end - for the first time.  Towards the end of the cycle especially, as they work insanely hard on their composition, they spend some nights holed up in the windowless practice room, just writing, and playing.

And sometimes, when he's stressed, she'll absently run her hands through his hair while she picks out melodies one note at a time on the piano, her fingers brushing his horns and not freezing, or pulling back, but just passing over them.

He didn't think he could love her more, but somehow that little fact, the complete lack of hesitancy or revulsion, it tips him over the edge from "love" into "so far gone he's a lost cause".  She is everything he could ever _want_ , and she's right here, and she knows him so well, better than anybody else, and she still stays.

They each pour their love and longing into that piece, and after they finally perform it and place the sheet music on the offering pedestal, still not letting go of each other's hands, she meets his eyes and smiles, and he knows he'll be hers until the day he finally really truly dies.

"You know," she says to him as they curl up in his bed a few cycles later, "you should just stop wearing your jeans one of these days."

"I thought you _liked_ my jeans," he murmurs sleepily into her hair.  She laughs.

"Yeah, I like how nice they make your _butt_ look," she says.  "You know what I mean, babe.  They're not gonna _care_ about the tiefling thing."

"It's been half a fuckin' century and they still think I'm human," he says.  "I think we've passed the point of big reveals."

"Well, it's up to you," she says, snuggling back against him and settling down to sleep.  "But I think it'd go better than you think."

He considers it, for the rest of the cycle.  And the next.  By this point, it's common for any of them to mull over things for a year or two, so Lup doesn't press - or maybe she just doesn't want to bug him because it's ultimately his choice.  Either way, he's left to mull over his options and make his decision for himself.

And, finally, he makes up his mind.

One Sunday morning, after Lup gets up to help Taako with breakfast like she always does, Barry hesitates before putting on his jeans.  Lup _was_ right, he knew logically that it'd be okay.  And okay sure he might not always be the most rational of people, but he can argue down his fear with reality, right?

Which is how he ends up shuffling into the dining room with visible red skin, gold eyes, a thin tail, and little nubby horns poking out of his hair.  The drowsy morning chatter continues as he reaches his seat and sits down, and that's when Magnus looks over and notices Barry, falling silent in the middle of a sentence and just _gaping_ .  And that, of course, prompts everybody else to look at him to see what startled Magnus, and then _they_ all fall silent, and...

And Barry just sits there, pours himself coffee from the carafe on the table, grabs some toast while he waits for the eggs and pancakes to be finished.  "Morning," he mumbles, shoving bread in his mouth and trying desperately to seem casual and not practically vibrating with nerves.

"Here's the eggs!" Lup declares into the uncomfortable silence, depositing the platter on the table.  "Pancakes'll be ready in about five minutes.  Hey, babe," she says as an afterthought, dropping a kiss into Barry's hair before circling back to the kitchen.

The silence returns, for about 15 seconds after she leaves, and then the room practically _explodes_ into sound and action.  Barry hadn't thought it was possible for _four people_ to cause a room to explode with sound and action, but in retrospect, he really shouldn't have underestimated his crewmates.

"Oh, well, I definitely didn't expect that," Lucretia says.  "But good for you?  I suppose?"

"Glad you felt like you could tell us," Davenport says over Lucretia.  "I'd thought it would only take a few years, tops."  Of course Davenport knew, it would've been in his official file, and boy, Barry's filing _that_ one away for future embarrassment.

"Wait, what?" Merle asks.  "Oh, that's Barry?  …'Kay."

" _I have no problem with your people_ ," Magnus says loudly and intensely.  "I want you to know that!"

"Oh god, Magnus, no," Lucretia says, head sinking into her hands.  Barry laughs, despite himself.  

"What?" Magnus asks.  "I was just--" Lucretia tugs him down, murmuring to him, and Magnus looks more embarrassed the longer she talks.  "Uh.  I mean.  Thanks for trusting us, buddy!" he tells Barry.

"Thanks, Magnus," he says, more honestly than he thought he would be this morning.

"Okay," Davenport says. "Now that we've all had a chance to be surprised, can we just carry on like the adults we purportedly are?"

"Yeah, sure," Merle says, then leans over to Lucretia.  "Has he _always_ been a tiefling?"

"I'm in hell," Lucretia says with a deep sigh.

By the time the pancakes come out five minutes later, everyone seems to have more or less processed the revelation of Barry's… existence.  Magnus tried to say a few more things about "his people" but was very _very_ quickly shut down by both Lucretia and Davenport.  Barry wasn't entirely sure Merle understood what was happening, but he seemed to be rolling with it.

"Paaaaancakes!" Lup says in a sing-song tone, setting the platter down with a thunk before plopping into the seat next to Barry.  "Eat up!"

"You're all savages, I'll have you know," Taako adds, following with another carafe of coffee and a plate of bacon and sausage.  He sits down and pours himself a cup of coffee before noticing Barry, at which point he just sort of stares for a moment as everyone helps themselves to breakfast around him.

Barry stares back with his solid gold eyes.  He'd been told it was unsettling.  For Taako, Barry is willing to play up the unsettling.

"Um," Taako says.  "Just curious, but uh, has anyone noticed that Barry's a goddamn _tiefling_ all the sudden?"

"Uh, _yeah_ ," Magnus says, mouth full of eggs and pancake.  "Old news, Taako.  Get with the program."

Taako lets out an incoherent noise of protest that Lup and Lucretia have to talk him down from.  Barry just grabs some pancakes and drowns his breakfast in syrup.

Lup had been right all along.  Barry has, quite literally, the best family in any world.

"Lup," Lucretia asks eventually, "I'm curious, do you use the tail for any specific purpose during… well…"

Lup laughs hysterically, and Barry changes his mind.  He hates all of them.

**Author's Note:**

> Leo wanted tiefling!Barry, so Leo got tiefling!Barry! Hit me up on tumblr: [ruffboijuliaburnsides](ruffboijuliaburnsides.tumblr.com).


End file.
